Letters: U.S. must act to reduce danger of climate change

The federal government recently released its fourth National Climate Assessment supplementing last year’s Climate Science Special report summarizing the national effects of climate change. These reports reiterate the scientific consensus that climate change is man-made, already caused significant impacts, and these will accelerate in the coming years until fossil fuel emissions are significantly curtailed. Continuing our current emissions path, the report warns, could lead to 8 foot sea level rise by century’s end. Other key findings include:

Climate change creates new risks in communities across the United States, presenting growing challenges to human health and safety and quality of life.

Without substantial emissions reduction and adaptation efforts, it will cause growing losses to American infrastructure, property and impede the rate of economic growth.
Impacts on extreme weather and climate-related events, air quality, and transmission of disease through insects and pests, food and water increasingly threaten the health and well-being of American people.

While emissions have slowed in recent years, they do not approach the scale necessary to avoid substantial damages to the economy, environment and human health over the coming decades.

The severity of future impacts depends on the will of the people to force accelerated emission reductions by legislators.

Greg Kempf

Avon

Political leaders must address climate change

As a climate scientist, I have long fought again the politicization of climate change science. The science is sound, the outcomes for our planet are clear, and they are largely negative. But now, after the recent release of national and Indiana-specific reports on climate impacts, we need politicians to do what they are supposed to do—make policies and regulations that confront climate change and that improve the health and well-being of people, not corporations.

The National Climate Assessment was released on Black Friday, and it was dark news indeed, particularly for the economy of the Midwest. The agricultural sector will be hit especially hard with stronger swings of drought, and flood, challenging the ability of farmers to predict crop choices for a given year, and protect those crops once they are in the ground.

This regional perspective supports the results from a series of Indiana-specific climate change reports produced this year by the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, including challenges for farmers and frightening prospects for the health of Hoosiers. The spread of Lyme Disease, mosquitoes varieties that can carry Zika and other “tropical” viruses, heat emergencies in major cities, and degraded air quality and related cardio-pulmonary diseases are all part of Indiana’s future.

Indeed, as anybody who has lived in Indiana for some time will tell you, general climate changes are already occurring, from the “pothole apocalypse” of 2018, caused by widely varying winter temperatures, to extreme precipitation events and nearly snow-free winters in central Indiana. That the trajectory of change will continue does not require much of a leap of faith, and it also can be used as an important planning tool moving forward.

We cannot change the trajectory of these changes, nor respond proactively to their impacts, on an individual basis. We need political leaders to step up, and create policies and regulations to speed our transition to a fossil-free future through greater incentives to change (the carrot), and stricter regulations (the stick) for polluters.

Such policies will help to dampen the negative effects of climate change and make Indiana more resilient to climate impacts. Indiana University is already investing in this future through the Environmental Resilience Institute, which aims to measure and model environmental change, and provide solutions to these changes. The grim economic and health picture painted by the 2018 National Climate Assessment indicates that it is time for politicians to step in as well.

Gabriel Filippelli

Professor, Environmental Resilience Institute, Indiana University

U.S. should sanction Saudi Arabia for journalist's murder

I am distressed with the Trump administration's response to the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The administration has indicated it will ignore the killing because of monetary interests in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. needs to sanction the Saudis for this action. I am especially concerned because it feeds into the administration's verbal attacks against journalists. I encourage our representatives to ensure Saudi Arabia understands the U.S. does not approve of, and will not permit, actions like this from our allies.

Carolyn Stobba-Wiley

Indianapolis

Saudi Arabia uses president's words to excuse murder

A journalist, a resident of the United States, has been killed by a foreign government. His murder was designed and executed by Saudi Arabia on Turkish soil. This was denounced by the world.

Yet, President Donald Trump almost completely dismissed it. Now, the Saudi Arabian controlled media is using Trump's own words to excuse themselves of this terrible and awful murder.

Verl Wisehart

Stilesville

Smokers should be scanned for lung cancer

Many Indiana residents may be unaware that lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of men and women in the U.S., accounting for about one in four cancer deaths. In 2018 alone, approximately 5,840 people in Indiana will be diagnosed with lung cancer. One of the main reasons that lung cancer is so deadly is that it is often diagnosed in later stages, after the disease has already spread.

As a family physician, I have seen first hand the impact that this terrible disease has on families and residents of Indiana. I and my colleagues witness on a daily basis the devastating and frequently fatal impact lung cancer has on our patients.

I am writing to encourage residents who smoked or still smoke to visitSavedByTheScan.org to take an easy lung cancer screening eligibility quiz and learn if they may be at high risk and eligible for screening. Medicare and most private insurers cover this screening in high-risk patients and most health systems in Indiana provide it at low cost for those needing to pay out-of-pocket.

If each of the 8 million Americans at high risk were to be screened, we’d have the opportunity to save about 25,000 lives.

Dr. Christopher Doehring

Vice President Medical Affairs, Franciscan Health Central Indiana

House Speaker should allow Curtis Hill's impeachment

My question for House Speaker Brian Bosma: How many women would Attorney General Curtis Hill have had to assault on March 15 for Bosma to consider impeachment to be more important than “a distraction in a busy legislative session”?

Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm

Richmond

U.S. should stop supporting Saudi Arabia's attacks on Yemen

We can end the war in Yemen. More than 4,600 civilians have died in the war, and 18.8 million people are completely dependent on humanitarian aid that is being denied by the Saudi-led coalition. The war erupted in 2015 after President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi returned with the support of this coalition.

Currently, Yemen is considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the U.S. is guilty of perpetuating it. Despite the absence of a declaration of war, the U.S. supplies arms to the Saudi-led coalition; and, in April, President Trump announced a plan to sell Saudi Arabia an additional $110 billion in arms.

We are responsible for the atrocities committed in Yemen with arms our nation supplies. Soon, the Senate will vote on Joint Resolution 54, which would use the War Powers Resolution to end U.S. refueling and intelligence-sharing to forces conducting bombing in Yemen. We need Sens. Joe Donnelly’s and Sen. Todd Young’s support to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen conflict. Let them know you want their support on SJR 54.

Zachary Gossett

Indianapolis

Homeless youth need support during holidays

The holidays are upon us, and for many there is no better time of year. However, for the 4.2 million youth who are homeless in the United States each year, the holidays are unlikely to be filled with joy and presents.

At the National Runaway Safeline, we work to keep America’s runaway, homeless and at-risk youth safe and off the streets. We do this largely through crisis intervention services, such as our hotline and online services.

So, when a 15-year-old boy calls our toll-free number, 1-800-786-2929, seeking shelter, an NRS volunteer or staff member listens and provides support, and together they devise a plan to ensure the teen’s safety and well-being.

Or when a 19-year-old girl sends a message via 1800runaway.org explaining she is far from home and wants to be reconnected with family, but is penniless, we help by assessing the situation, contacting her parent or guardian, and possibly sending her home through the Home Free program offered in partnership with Greyhound Lines.

Children deserve a safe, nurturing home during the holidays, and always. Happily, NRS makes more than 100,000 connections to help and hope each year. We partner with approximately 8,000 agencies in cities such as Indianapolis that serve youth in crisis.

Youth homelessness is a serious issue, but it one that we can solve together. For more information, visit1800runaway.org.

Susan Frankel

Executive Director, National Runaway Safeline

Hicks provided insightful review of economic progress

I am most grateful for Michael Hicks’ insightful review in his Nov. 25 column of the astonishing world wide progress in economic growth and standards of living over the past three centuries. During a week when our thoughts should focus on gratitude for the many blessings we enjoy, his marvelous perspective could not have been more timely.

As Hicks notes, true material poverty world wide has been halved in the last 25 years. Perhaps even more importantly from a human rights perspective, he notes that the percentage of the world’s population living in a democracy now approaches 60% — a three fold increase just over the past century! As one, who on a personal level consistently fails to fully appreciate the many undeserved blessings I enjoy, I thank Hicks for his articulate reminder to reflect a bit more on the positive benefits of past history.